Top image was of First Love with a fresh kill delivered to her by Pale Male. The bird died an abominable death from ingesting a poisoned pigeon. Bottom right, Blue, First Love’s replacement,
was plucking a typical meal. Bottom left, photographed on April 3, 2011, was with Lima on the
famous antenna. Their efforts resulted in a successful brood of 2... Pigeons make up about 90% of
the daily food intake of adult Red-tails in Manhattan. Only in late spring will these birds bother
to catch small mammals and/or clean out the nests of other birds, to provide tender meals for their
own chicks. The open question here would be, why female as well as adolescent hawks go for
the easy more often, while the proud male is not known to ever have made such a capital mistake.
If raptors were to die from cumulative heart breaks, Pale Male would be long gone.
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